whirlwind
by secondchild02
Summary: It's Christmas eve and Raven is wandering about jump city. She bumps into a strange yet somehow familiar young man who shows her that monsters and villains aren't all there is to Jump City. R&R please
1. The meeting

Whirlwind

Disclaimer; I don't own Teen Titans or anything to do with them.

Christmas Eve at Jump Plaza, the enormous multi storied mall at the base of Jump Tower the monolithic skyscraper that dominated the skyline and the centre of the city. The balcony overlooking the central ice rink was crowded with couples holding hands and staring into each others eyes and doing all the things associated with romance and the festive season.

But one girl was standing all by herself watching the procession of skaters go round and round the rink blank faced and disinterested. She was dressed in a long dark coat with a deep hood and black jeans with a dark roll necked top and pair of heavy black boots. It contrasted with her pale face and lavender hair that poked out from under a dark hat. To the ordinary passer by she would look like some lonely teenage girl or maybe a worn out late night shopper because no one would have thought that Raven the Teen Titan would have been standing there dressed like an evil version of Blossom.

The truth was that she just didn't have anywhere else to go and no one to go there with. So, some kind of gravitational force had brought her here. So now surrounded by overwhelming love for her fellow man Raven existed in a bubble of seasonal depression that nothing could burst and just stared at the people down on the ice until they left in happy dribs and drabs and there was just one loan figure skating in circles on the ice.

She followed it with her eyes as it made huge lazy circles and figure eights, occasionally skating backwards or just on one skate until she realised the figure was looking right back at her the whole time. Quickly she looked away and felt a rush of embarrassment as she realised she'd been caught and hurriedly turned to leave but crashed into a tallish skinny boy with dark spiky hair in a black top with a bright red body warmer and jeans. Raven bumped off him and fell onto her back in a tangled mess of her huge coat and hurt pride.

"Are you okay Miss?" the voice was confident and had an edge of good natured concern while it appreciated the humour of the situation.

"I'm fine," snapped Raven "I just didn't see you there, that's all". She got herself to her feet and began to walk away when she heard footsteps rushing to follow her "Wait up there, you dropped something" the boy shouted as Raven stopped and turned to glower at him "No I didn't" and continued to walk on.

"Okay," said the boy "you didn't but can I talk to you at least before you run off?"

"Why?" asked Raven as she began to descend the stairs at the far end of the balcony.

"You do know it's rude to answer a question with a question?"

Raven stopped on the second step down "Well you just asked another one so that must make you ruder than me!" The boy stopped and laughed a little,

"You got me, Miss. But I got one more for you". Raven spun round quickly, the boy was annoying her now, "What? You knock me over, follow me and persist in annoying me! What could I possibly know that you need to?"

"I just wanted to know why you were watching me skate?" The Boy held up a pair of well used and still slightly wet skates. Raven glanced at the skates and blushed slightly but looked down so that the boy couldn't see it. She had no idea why she had been watching him skate, no idea she had been watching him skate, and no real idea why she was even here at this place at this time. Raven looked at him again this time taking in the fact that he wasn't unattractive with an athletic build and a nice smile. "I'm not really sure to be honest" she said "I just didn't have anywhere else to go"

"On Christmas Eve? Come on, everyone has somewhere to go, even rather pale and darkly attired girls?" the boy raised an eyebrow curiously.

"What is it with you and questions and why don't you have anywhere to go either?" Raven snapped back "Why are you spending your Christmas Eve ice skating alone rather than with _your_ family?" The boy crossed his arms and grinned "Another question, Miss. Tell you what, you let me buy you a cup of coffee and we answer these questions of ours?" Raven's eyes narrowed suspiciously,

"And why would I go for coffee with a guy I just met and has so far annoyed me more than anyone I know with his incessant questions?"

"Because we've both admitted that we have nothing else to do," The boy walked down the stairs past Raven and as he did so said "and that was another question, Miss"

Still slightly annoyed Raven settled down into her extremely large and squashy chair at the nearest branch of "Java the Hut" a national coffee bar franchise that Raven hated. She had selected a kind of raspberry tea they sold that wasn't too vile and the boy had gone for an egg nogg latte that came in the largest mug Raven had ever seen. "So is this the time we exchange names and life stories and the reason we're both wandering about on Christmas Eve alone?" asked Raven. The boy took a slurp of his coffee,

"Why not, Richard Grayson, pleased to meet you" he extended a hand across the table which Raven took and shook. "Rae Roth, similar".

TBC…

Author note.

Okay, I haven't put anything new up for a long time, I've been a little busy with a new college course I'm on and I just hit a major block with TIODM so I just wanted to write a little story that was removed from my continuity. Yes Raven has stumbled into Robin on xmas eve, she has no idea who he is but he knows who she is. It all stems back to my obsession with duplicity and double lives, Robin can have two lives a lot more easily than the other titans can and I just wanted to play with. So in one life he's Robin and in the other he's Richard Grayson the strange young man Raven has bumped into on xmas eve, will she find out? Why can't she just read his mind? All will be explained later. Enjoy.


	2. The conversation

"I'm guess it's more than just a fashion or music thing?" Richard leaned back in his chair and asked Raven. "And to what would you referring to now I wonder?" Raven stirred her tea and sat back watching it brew. "The clothes," he waved a hand at her "the fact that black dominates your wardrobe choice, and the coat is something else". Raven glanced down at her top and her jeans and quickly sideways to where her coat and hat were. "What's wrong with how I dress, I happen to like dark colours if you need to know" grumbled Raven. Richard took a sip of his huge cup of coffee and said "I'm going to guess that from the wear on the clothes and that the cut of the jeans is about four years out fashion that they are either the only clothes you like to wear or the only clothes you actually own" he looked smug as he grinned at her over his coffee. "You also seem uncomfortable in them like you don't wear them very often, which raises more interesting questions I think" Raven raised an eyebrow at him and looked at him blankly,

"No more questions about my clothes, end of topic" said Raven.

"Okay," said Richard "how about we go back to why you have nowhere else to go, don't you have a family?" Raven's eyes glazed a bit as if she was looking at something far away, after a while she said "

Of sorts" her voice sounded small as if it was a little girl talking and not the irritated young woman that was sitting in the huge smothering armchair. "My mother lives far away, back home, and my father isn't interested in me at all," Raven seemed to be looking at her shoes "so I live with my friends, they're good people and they put up with me"

"You talk like you're a burden to the people who care about you" Richard had set his coffee down and was looking at her seriously. "In a way I am," Raven looked up at him "I suppose I can be a little unapproachable and secretive, maybe scary sometimes". Richard grinned,

"That's what we call normal, no one is the perfect person at all times" he shifted and leaned forward in his chair "Take me for instance," Raven rested her elbow on the arm of her chair and held her chin in her hand, she was curious about this Richard Grayson. "To my friends and my family, well foster family, I can be the most stubborn, obsessive, hard headed guy on the planet. I don't let anything go once it's peaked my interest-"

"Really?" said Raven as she grinned playfully, and caught herself doing it.

"Okay, I suppose you peaked my interest a little"

"Only a little?"

"Fine, more than a little," Richard grinned back at her and there was eye contact, possibly for a fraction of a second longer than it had to be. Raven noticed this, as she was sure he had and felt a wave of an unfamiliar feeling wash over her, was she enjoying herself? Was Raven the depressive sort-of-goth girl who seldom came out of her room and read books constantly actually enjoying having a conversation with someone? This Richard was certainly an interesting person and the first new person she had met in months who hadn't been hell bent on killing her or stealing something or destroying the city. "So you're adopted then," Raven leaned back in her chair "do you remember you parents at all?"

"Yeah, they were circus performers, good ones," It was Richard's turn to look all distant "we did Metropolis, Central City, Gotham all the big shows. Then they died". Raven frowned,

"How?" she was sensing a great deal of pain from him. It was the first clear reading she'd got from him since she met him, she'd chalked it up to holiday blues that her empathic abilities were a little erratic but she'd felt the pain from him like an icicle through her brain. Richard Grayson had something to talk about.

"They were murdered," Richard growled through gritted teeth "for nothing more than they wouldn't pay an evil man some money" Raven was overwhelmed now with the anger boiling off of the boy, in her minds' eye all she could see was a red fog with Richard Grayson standing at the centre of it. She reached out and placed her hand on top of his without thinking "I'm so sorry," he looked at her,

"You don't have to be," he said "it wasn't your fault". Raven squeezed his hand and withdrew to her chair again and in a blink of an eye Richard's expression changed back to the cheerful good natured one he'd had when Raven met him. "Well we've both established a troubled past and that the people we've come to call family can find us a little unbearable," said Richard putting down his cup "so what do you do for fun then, Rae Roth?".

"I read, a lot," said Raven

"Just reading, nothing else?" he said "In a city like Jump?"

"What's so special about Jump City?" asked Raven looking at Richard "and what's wrong with reading, I happen to enjoy it"

"Nothing at all, reading is fun, if you have nothing else to. I mean you don't go to clubs, or museums, or see a football game or-"

"Do I look the sporty type?" Raven asked dryly raising an eyebrow.

"Not a sports fan then, okay, you must do something apart from reading dusty old books to pass the time, do you have a job?" asked Richard.

"I do… charity work" said Raven

"Charity work?" said Richard "you don't strike me as the charitable type"

"Call it a Karma thing, trying to make up for things I've done "said Raven. "or things I might do"

"You can't possibly have done anything bad enough to require a Karma polish now can you?" he smiled again, his face seemed almost permanently fixed in a good natured grin and it reflected in his eyes as an old fashioned wholesome twinkle that on some level Raven actually had difficulty accepting as genuine. Raven found herself once again returning the infectious grin "You can't be too careful with Karma you know". Richard chuckled a little "I suppose you can't, so tell me a little about this charity work, who do you help?" he said. Raven was stuck for an answer, what do you say when "charity work" means flying around the city in a great blue cape fighting villains and madmen with an alien, a green changeling, a cyborg, and a barely controllable obsessive compulsive, gadget packing ninja in a cape? So she settled for "It's agency work, I go where I'm needed I could be working in a soup kitchen one day then animal rescue the next. It's really rather challenging and quite fun to meet new people" Raven sounded like she was reading off a script and in fact she was. Robin had long ago created a charity agency with funds form an unknown source as a way of helping the victims of the criminals they chased and repair the damage caused by their battles with them. On the list of volunteers were five names that seemed to help out but were never actually present to do this and was merely one aspect of the civilian identities that Robin had generated for them in case they ever had to go underground for a while.

"Sounds interesting," said Richard "so back on topic, what do you do for fun?" he leaned forward in his chair "wanna go out sometime and let me show you what fun is in Jump City?". Raven actually felt the blush rush up her face bringing unaccustomed colour to her face "That's a very nice offer Richard," she said "but I don't know when I'll have the time" she spoke quickly, fumbling over the words slightly and trying to silence the girl in her head that was screaming "YES!". Ravens' experience with boys was limited to her team mates and boys back in Azarath who were always afraid of her and never even looked at her so to be asked out by someone she had known for barely half an hour was a shock to the system.

Richard flopped back in his chair and shut his eyes sighing and looked ready to admit defeat but after a second his eyes flicked open and a wide grin filled his face as he leapt out of his seat and grabbed Raven by the wrist pulling her out of her chair as he said "How about now?"

Author note.

To those people who really liked the start of this story when I started it back in December, I'm so sorry for taking so long to update this, December and January are just crazy at the hotel I work in so I've no time to do anything, even sleep much. But I'm back and this story should be coming at you hard and fast over the next few weeks. Thank you so much for the reviews.


	3. The Journey

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with the teen titans, in fact I don't own much at all so it would be pretty pointless to sue me anyway. Sue my neighbour, he's got motorbikes and stuff.

The taxi cab zipped through the streets of Jump City and inside Raven's head was spinning. As she watched the strip and the street lights blur into one as the vehicle picked up speed she caught her reflection in the window. Her big round amethyst eyes were round with wonder at this boy who was looking out of the window behind her and when she thought of him a foreign rush of colour filled her cheeks. Did she like him. _Like_ wasn't really it, she was interested in him. She bit her lip nervously and smiled inside.

"So where are we going exactly, you were kind'a vague?" She asked the tall dark haired boy beside her. "It's a party," he said.

"A party" said Raven

"Yes," said Richard "you do know what a party is, people, music, fun, that whole deal"

"I am familiar with what a party is thank you" Raven snapped back

"Okay," he grinned and raised his hands in mock self defence "well my friend Roy is having a party in his place just outside of town and I just thought that maybe you would like to go somewhere that wasn't a library or a Gothic poetry night"

"I like Gothic poetry" Said Raven weakly.

"But life cant be all dark and dreary, you have to get out in the light sometimes" Richard grinned again, Raven was suspecting that he did that a lot. "I like the dark," said Raven softly "besides," she rallied "I burn easily"

"So we'll just wait a while before we hit the beach then" he laughed. Raven scowled at him "No picturing me in a swimsuit, you got that" she growled.

"I won't if you won't" he whispered in her ear and Raven snapped back to looking out of the window to hide her obvious embarrassment at the boys statement.

They were rounding the bay now and the road was climbing as they entered the hills. Out the window she could see the calm waters of the bay perfectly reflecting the moon and the building that stood on an island in its' centre. A tower shaped like a 'T' kept its lonely vigil over the city and looked out with a cyclopean eye that was really just a light on in the main room.

In her minds eye she could see a Christmas tree that was being enthusiastically but incorrectly decorated by a tall, slim, orange skinned girl with green eyes and hair that was the colour of fire. She zipped around the tree putting brightly coloured baubles, gingerbread men and for some reason cutlery on the trees branches. A small green boy and a large metal man were fighting over a controller for a Game-Station console and it wasn't clear who would be the clear winner. A boy in festive red and green stood back and watched it all with a smirk on his face but kept a peculiar distance from it all, the way he always did.

But one member of this family was no where to be found, they never noticed when she wasn't around, they seldom paid any attention to her when she was around. Had she forced them out with her aloofness and solace she always took in the dreary romantic scribbling of poets long dead. A voice snapped her out of her imagination "Rae, you still in there?" Richard put his hand on her shoulder "don't go catatonic on me already, I haven't had a chance to really bore you yet" Raven shook herself back to reality,

"I was just lost in thought for a second" she barely noticed the boys hand on her shoulder.

"Your family?" he asked nervously

"Kinda" she said, "or at least those people I call my family. They probably won't be missing me tonight anyway"

"Why would you say that?"

"Cause it's true," she sniffed "the only person who's wanted to be around me in weeks is you, Richard" She turned and smiled weakly at him "I'm pathetic. I barely know you and I'm away off into the night to some party full of people I don't know just because you had a conversation with me"

"Hey, you're not pathetic," Richard's grin came back again and Raven grinned out of reflex too "and you better cheer up-"

"Why?" Raven arched a thin eyebrow.

"-Because we're here"

author note.

Man, it's been ages. I cannot apologise enough for taking so long to offer you such a meagre chapter of this story but the truth is that I just ran out of steam on this one for a while. I know where I want the story to end but I didn't know how to get there until recently. I've been working like a madman and I'm in my final year at college now and I'm so sorry to the people who found this story and liked it that I almost left it unfinished. Please do not worry, I'm back on the case now.


	4. The party

Frost crunched underfoot like dropped chips as Raven and Richard walked up the white slabbed path to the front door of the house. It was a fairly large house set in its own garden in what was regarded to be a fairly affluent part of town but all images of a party consisting of canapés and lounging around discussing current events were dispelled as soon as she had got out of the taxi. The whole neighbourhood resonated to a heartbeat bass thump that was clearly coming from the house they were headed for. 'Oh my,' thought Raven 'what have I gotten into?'. As they approached the door it opened and a tall muscular looking man, sort of built along the same lines as Richard but with red hair, opened the door. He was dressed in a maroon shirt and black pants and had a glass of something in his hand and a wide grin on his face. "Dick," he shouted "so glad you finally showed up, got you out of your cave for once" he turned to the throng of people behind him "Everybody! Dick's here"

"Hey, Dick!" was the general shout of reply. Richard rolled his eyes and half glared at the guy "Roy," he growled "would you quit calling me Dick, I've asked you before about this"

"No sweat Rich," Roy grinned again "Hello," he said appearing to notice Raven for the first time "and who do we have here, Rich where are you finding them these days you have to tell me" Raven stood there with an expression of frozen good naturedness while she tries to decipher what was going on and wondered when they would be allowed in out of the cold. This Roy seemed pleasant enough so far.

"Roy, This is Rae Roth" Richard urged Raven forward with his hand on her back "she's a friend of mine"

"Well, come on in Rae," said Roy "keg's in the yard, Xbox in the den, and fun where ever you can find it" Richard ushered her in and she was immediately hit with the sweatbox atmosphere prompting here to take of her coat and hat and proceed into the party.

Behind her, unbeknownst to her Roy raised a questioning eyebrow at Richard "I thought it was you and the princess that had the thing going, what's Paleface doin' here?" Richard grinned and put his hand on Roy's shoulder "It's Christmas" he said and went to follow Rae. Roy stood in the hallway being jostled by people as he watched Richard vanish into the kitchen "What's that supposed to mean? Dude!?"

Raven meanwhile was standing in the kitchen when Richard arrived seemingly being interrogated by two older girls. One was dressed in a black Cocktail dress with red shoulder length hair and the other wore blue jeans and a blue t-shirt over a red long sleeve and her blonde hair in a bony tail. The redhead looked at Richard as he came in "Hey Dick," she said in a perky voice that sounded too young to be coming from her "who's your friend?"

"Yeah," said the blonde "spill it, Dick". Raven could see that being called Dick really annoyed him. "This is my friend Rae," said Richard "Rae, this is Barbara and Kara" he gestured to the redhead and the blonde respectively. "Hi" the both spoke in unison. Raven almost immediately fought the instinct to not like them. "So what were you girls talking about then?"

"Oh nothing much" said Kara

"Nothing at all" said Barbara

"Just stuff" said Kara. They looked at each other for a second before turning back to Richard "You, actually" they both spoke in unison again and inside Raven gritted her teeth- that could become annoying. For a second Richard got this bug eyed nervous look, "Really?"

"Sure," said Barbara "we've never had our little Dickey bring a friend to a party before" she teased. "Especially a girl friend" added Kara. Richard was looking even paler and Raven was staring blankly at the two girls. "I'll go get us a drink" was Richard's exit line for the time being and that left Raven with Barbara and Kara in the kitchen. Kara poured a third glass of wine for Raven "It is just so much fun winding him up like that, don't you agree Barb?" Barbara took a gulp from her glass and nodded,

"Yeah, he gets more and more like the old man every day, no sense of humour" she offered Raven the fresh glass of wine which she accepted "So have you know our little Dickey long, he really doesn't mention his friends". Raven shook her head "No, I met him tonight, bout two hours ago" she said. Kara raised an eyebrow

"And you just agreed to go to a party in the hills with someone you barely know?" she said "we could be, like, a cult or something". Barbara rolled her eyes,

"What kind of cult, or any group would let Roy in? I mean he's a friend but seriously, the guys an ass. I swear he has to be on something half the time" Raven mentally rewound the conversation 'Old man?' she thought "Do you know Richards' parents?" she asked Barbara. "His parents? no. I work for his Foster Dad" the girl replied as Kara almost imperceptibly grinned "Yeah, she works nights" Barbara shot the Blonde a glance.

"I forgot his parents were dead" said Raven weakly as she sipped her wine. Barbara goggled at her "He talked about his parents, to you, and he just met you. It took us years to get him to even mention them, we all thought he was orphaned at birth. How did you do it?"

"We had a cup of coffee and we just talked. All he told me was that they were murdered when he was very young" said Raven. Kara looked at her gravely,

"Did he tell you he saw it happen?" and for a second Raven was stunned. No he hadn't mentioned it at all but then why would he, he hardly knew her.

A/N: yes it's been a long time since I updated and this chapter is kinda lame but it's a necessary bridge to the next parts of our little story. Again for those who do like this story I'm sorry I took so long.


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